The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) preferred a second murder charge against Migori Governor Okoth Obado, who is facing a count over the killing of Rongo University student Sharon Otieno.
Obado, his personal assistant, Michael Oyamo, and the Migori county clerk, Caspal Obiero, who until Monday faced one count of murder, now face another charge of the murder of Sharon's unborn child after the court allowed to consolidate the two cases.
Sharon was seven months pregnant when she was brutally murdered and her body dumped at Kodera forest.
In the first count, Obado, Oyamo and Obiero were charged afresh with jointly murdering Sharon on the night of September 3.
In the second count, the three were charged with killing Sharon’s unborn baby, referred to as “Baby Sharon” in the charge sheet.
The DPP’s decision to amend the charge sheet to introduce the killing of the foetus is unprecedented and will likely open a new chapter in the prosecution of suspects accused of killing unborn babies.
State prosecutors Jacob Ondari and Alexander Muteti had previously told the court that the ODPP would seek to amend the charge sheet to include the murder of Sharon’s seven-month-old foetus.
According to the prosecutors, the Constitution states that life begins at conception and that they could not overlook the fact that a second person was killed alongside Sharon.
A postmortem report filed in court by the DPP showed that the foetus died as a result of stab wounds on the right side through its mother’s womb.
The report also had DNA results that implied that Obado was the biological father of the baby boy.
